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Musicians may make the safest drivers, a new study suggests, after researchers found that people who play an instrument have faster reaction times.

The University of Montreal compared the reaction times of 16 musicians and 19 non-musicians asking them to click a mouse button when they sensed a vibration or noise.

Musicians reacted around 30 per cent faster than people who could not play instruments.

“We found significantly faster reaction times with musicians ,” said lead author, doctoral student Simon Landry.

“These results suggest for the first time that long-term musical training reduces simple non-musical auditory, tactile and multisensory reaction times.

“Reaction times are related to cognitive function. Having faster reaction times could help reacting to something when you're driving , if your attention is focused on driving, or if your job requires you to react to something quickly.”

Learning a musical instrument may improve driving and other activities which require fast reaction times

The finding could also be useful for elderly people, as it suggests that learning an instrument in later life could improve mental ability and prevent the brain declining.

“As people get older, for example, we know their reaction times get slower. So if we know that playing a musical instrument increases reaction times, then maybe playing an instrument will be helpful for them,” added Mr Landry.

“The more we know about the impact of music on really basic sensory processes, the more we can apply musical training to individuals who might have slower reaction times.”

Research has already shown that learning a second language in later life can help build cognitive reserve and prevent age related decline.

The musicians were recruited from the University of Montreal music faculty and all had started playing an instrument between ages of three and 10, and had at least seven years of training.

There were eight pianists, 3 violinists, two percussionists, one double bassist, one harpist and one viola player.

The non-musicians were students at the School of Speech Language Pathology. As with the musicians, roughly half were undergraduates and half graduates.

Mr Landry, whose research interest is in how sound and touch interact, said his study adds to previous ones that looked at how musicians’ brains process sensory illusions.

“The idea is to better understand how playing a musical instrument affects the senses in a way that is not related to music,” he added.